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GRAPHIC ART IN WEIMAR BERLIN:
THE CASE OF JEANNE MAMMEN
by
Suzanne Nicole Royal
______________________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(ART HISTORY)
May 2007
Copyright 2007 Suzanne Nicole Royal

Cigarette smoking, fashionable, working, and sexually active -- these are just a few of the words that come to mind when describing the neue Frau of Weimar Germany. While these attributes were in many ways accurate, what else did it mean to be a woman in Germany after World War I, living in a world with a variety of new technical advances? My dissertation examines the myths and realities of the New Woman in Weimar Germany (1918-1933) using the artwork of Jeanne Mammen (1890-1976) as a case study. Mammen's work, like that of other, numerous female Weimar era artists, has been all but forgotten. While neue Sachlichkeit artists Otto Dix and George Grosz are familiar names within the art historical canon, Mammen and most of her femalecolleagues, who did work in the neue Sachlichkeit style, are not. Women in general and female artists in particular are frequently marginalized for not being modern enough, to paraphrase the title of a recent study by Marsha Meskimmon. Their art making has come to be regarded either as a hobby or as mere illustration, a category which falls under the rubric of craft rather than the fine arts. However, by examining the artistic production of the period more closely, one finds that women artists worked in a myriad of ways as successful, producing artists.; My dissertation historically situates the neue Frau by examining her against such popular Weimar subjects as rationalization, the new visibility of women, the women's movement, as well as the figure of the prostitute. Within these contexts, I examine Mammen's fine art production, her work for the popular press, and her book commissions. Mammen's work offers a view of the counter-culture of 1920s Berlin as seen through the eyes of a young artist observing and recording the changing city around her. In addition to her work for popular women's magazines, by 1927 Mammen had made a name for herself in Berlin, working alongside George Grosz, Karl Arnold, Rudolf Schlichter and Ludwig Kainer on illustrations for liberal, upper middle class intellectual journals such as Ulk, Uhu, and Simplicissimus.; I pay particular attention to the cultural critic Curt Moreck's book of 1931, The Guide to Immoral Berlin, (Führer durch das 'lasterhafte' Berlin). Moreck's Guide presents a virtual roadmap through the underbelly of the metropole. My interest in Moreck's Guide lies not only in the subject matter it explores -- the celebrated if seedy nightlife of Weimar Berlin -- but also in the color illustrations that accompany the text, particularly those by Mammen, the only female artist to be included. Mammen's artwork often highlights aspects of mass culture, while her illustrations for Moreck's guidebook represent a cultural object in itself, focusing on "low-brow" entertainments such as nightclubs, bars and cafes. The dissertation examines the ways her commercial and noncommercial art may have informed one another. In doing so, my study aims to understand the relation between mass culture and the visual arts during the Weimar Period.

GRAPHIC ART IN WEIMAR BERLIN:
THE CASE OF JEANNE MAMMEN
by
Suzanne Nicole Royal
______________________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(ART HISTORY)
May 2007
Copyright 2007 Suzanne Nicole Royal